Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 44: That It Is Lawful for Monks to Live from Things Freely Offered and Given
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Of the third mode there ought to be no question; for Blessed Augustine (on Psalm 103, sermon 3), explaining that verse, The cedars which he hath planted; there the sparrows shall make their nests, says that the cedars are powerful and rich men, but the sparrows are the poor religious; and that the sparrows make their nests in the cedars signifies that the monasteries of the religious are erected and sustained by the rich of this age: “The cedars of Lebanon,” he says, “the noble and rich, the lofty of this age, when with fear they hear, Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor, attend to their goods, their farms, and all their superfluous resources, by which they seem lofty, and offer them to the servants of God; they give gardens, they build churches, monasteries; they gather sparrows, that they may nest in the cedars of Lebanon.” Jerome (in epistle 27 to Eustochium, on the death of Paula) praises holy Paula, that from her goods she had built and sustained four monasteries, one of monks and three of sacred virgins. Pope Gregory, as John the Deacon writes (Book 1, chapters 5 and 6, of his life), erected from his patrimony seven monasteries, and assigned to each estates and possessions — six in Sicily, one at Rome. Like examples of Charlemagne, Charles IV, Henry II, and other best princes, very many could be brought forward.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XLIV. Licitum esse Monachis vivere ex rebus sponte oblatis et donatis . De Tertio modo nulla quaestio esse deberet, nam B. Augustinus in Psalm. C1II. conc. 3. explicans illud : Cedri, quas plantavit , illic passeres nidificabunt (1), dicit cedros esse ho¬ mines potentes, et divites ; passeres autem esse religiosos pauperes : nidificare vero passeres in cedris, significare, quod religio¬ sorum monasteria a divitibus hujus saeculi eriguntur, et sustentantur : « Cedri Libani, inquit, nobiles et divites, excelsi hujus sae¬ culi, quando cum timore audiunt : Beatus qui intelligit super egenum et pauperem, attendunt res suas, villas suas, et omnes su¬ perfluas copias, quibus videntur excelsi, et praebent illas servis Dei, dant hortos, aedifi¬ cant Ecclesias, monasteria, colligunt passe¬ res, ut in cedris Libani nidificent. » Hiero¬ nymus in epist. 27, ad Eustochium de obitu Paulae, laudat sanctam Paulam, quod ex rebus suis quatuor monasteria aedificasset, et sustentasset, unum Monachorum, et tria sacrarum virginum. Gregorius Papa, ut lib. I, cap. 5 et 6. vitae ejus scribit Joan. Diaconus ex patrimonio suo septem monas¬ teria erexit, et singulis praedia, et posses¬ siones attribuit, sex in Sicilia, unum Romae. Similia exempla Caroli Magni, Caroli IY, Henrici II, et aliorum optimorum Principum, plurima adferri possent.